Cuomo
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (Legal Newsline) - New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has secured more than $100,000 in refunds for consumers allegedly defrauded by a Geneva, N.Y., car dealership.
The owners and employees of Daniels Automotive Group, also known as Howard-Oldsmobile-Cadillac-Pontiac-GMC Truck, Inc., were found guilty of defrauding 38 customers living in the Rochester and Finger Lakes regions.
Cuomo alleged that owner Daniel T. Howard, former sales manager Ronald J. Cox and the company's sales staff were involved in numerous scams, including loans, credit and warranty scams
Daniels Automotive employees were found to have regularly altered sales documents and engaged in other deceptive acts from Aug. 2008-Dec. 2008.
"This dealership engaged in a pattern of deception and fraud that cost unsuspecting consumers thousands of dollars," Cuomo said. "These practices have been put to a stop, and we have secured restitution for those the dealership ripped off."
The defendants were also charged with collecting consumers' signatures on blank or partially blank documents and later inserting figures and terms inconsistent with what was agreed upon, misrepresenting to customers that they were required to purchase an extended warranty, and submitting purchase and loan documents to financial institutions and other state agencies with forged signatures.